Grisaille

In fine
art, the term grisaille most commonly refers to a monochrome painting
technique by which a painting or
drawing is executed exclusively in shades
of grey. Since a full colour painting requires more time and skill than
one in monochrome (en camaieu), grisaille was often chosen as a
quicker and cheaper alternative, although it was also chosen quite deliberately
chosen for aesthetic reasons, in order to create a specfic visual effect.
Traditionally, when part of a large decorative scheme in fresco or oils,
or if incorporated into an altarpiece,
a grisaille composition was often modeled to resemble sculpture,
either relief or statuary. Good examples of grisaille mural paintings
can be seen in the Chiostro dello Scalzo of the Scalzi in Florence (1511-26),
illustrating the life of John the Baptist. The artist was Andrea
del Sarto (1486-1530), later leader of the Florentine High Renaissance.

Different Types
of Grisaille

Basically, a work of grisaille may be executed
as an independent finished work, as described above, or as a preliminary
underpainting for an oil painting. In
this case the painter overpaints the grisaille with layers of colour glaze.
(Note: In French art, the term grisaille includes any painting method
in which oil colours are applied to a monotone underpainting.) Alternatively,
the grisaille may serve as a preparatory design for an engraving. Rubens'
workshop is known to have employed monochrome techniques when sketching
compositions for engravers.

In ceramic art
and certain forms of metalwork, painters
sometimes use the grisaille enamel painting technique, in which white
vitreous enamel is combined with water, turpentine, and petroleum oil
before being applied (typically) onto a black or blue enamel ground. A
thick coat produces light tones while a thinner coat produces the greys.
This grisaille enamel painting method - developed by 16th century French
artists at Limoges - can produce a dramatic effect of light and shade,
including enhanced volumes and three-dimensionality.

The term grisaille is also employed by
glass painters to describe a grey, vitreous type of colour
pigment used in the colouring of stained
glass. This was probably the first example of grisaille art since
Antiquity. An example is the 13th century Five Sisters stained
glass window in St Peter's Cathedral in York, England.

Note: The term grisaille has been stretched
to include monochromatic paintings in brown or green. However, these
may be described using more specific terms: brown works may be described
as brunaille, while those in green may be referred to as verdaille.

History of Grisaille

In the modern era, since Antiquity, the
technique first came to prominence in Western painting in the production
of illuminated
manuscripts, where illustrations were often executed in ink
and wash with a limited colour range. Known exponents of this type
of grisaille book painting include the Frenchman Jean
Pucelle (c.1290-1334) and the English artist Matthew Paris (c.1200-59),
although the technique had been practised widely in scriptoriums throughout
Ireland and Northern England since Anglo-Saxon times.

during the Proto-Renaissance when Giotto
used grisaille when painting some of his Scrovegni Chapel frescoes (c.1303-10)
in Padua. (The basic monochrome method had been used in Oriental Ink and
Wash painting, since about 650 CE. It is known as mo-shui in China, suibokuga
or sumi-e in Japan, and Soomookwa in Korea.)

Among the most famous grisaille paintings
of the Netherlandish
Renaissance are the two outer panels of the Portinari Altarpiece
(c.1476-9) by Hugo Van Der Goes (14401482). Painted entirely in
greys, they depict two life-size figures (Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin,
of the Annunciation) as stone sculptures installed in wall niches bordered
by shadows. When it was shipped to Italy in 1483, Van Der Goes' illusionary
work - had a huge impact on the painters of the Florentine
Renaissance, who had seen nothing like it before. Hieronymus Bosch
famously used grisaille to paint his extraordinary picture of the Creation,
on the outside of his altarpiece The Garden of Earthly Delights
(1500-05).

The technique was also used during the
High Renaissance
by the Mantua-based painter Andrea
Mantegna (1430-1506), Michelangelo
(in his Genesis fresco on the Sistine Chapel ceiling) as well as Andrea
del Sarto (14861530), leader of the Florentine High Renaissance,
among others.

During the 16th century, the tradition
of grisaille painting was maintained in the Netherlands, by the Haarlem-based
artist Maerten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), the great Pieter
Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-1569), the printmakers Hendrik Goltzius
(1558-1617) and Adriaen van de Venne (1589-1662), the landscape painter
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) and Rembrandt
(1606-69).

Since the late 17th century, grisaille
is one of the types of art that has declined
in popularity both with artists and collectors. Nonetheless it is still
used for aesthetic reasons in certain decorative works.

Famous Grisaille
Paintings

Here is a short selected list of paintings
containing or executed in grisaille.

Foreshortening
Reducing length of figure to depict perspectival depth.QuadraturaTrompe l'oeil mural technique of pushing space beyond a room's
architecture.Chiaroscuro
The application of light and shadow to suggest volume in figures.Tenebrism
The handling of light and shadow for dramatic purposes.Sfumato
The use in oil painting of imperceptible variations in tone.